Marino, Evans win titles, lead Cocalico to second-place finish

After an outstanding day in the pool Friday, the Cocalico girls took it to a whole new level Saturday at the District Three Swim Championships held at Cumberland Valley High School.

The Lady Eagles, who won five first-day medals and stood in third place overall going into Saturday, had one of their greatest days in their program’s post-season history.

Senior stars Sam Marino and Sidney Evans both captured their first-ever individual gold medals at Districts when the former swam to victory in the 100 back (56.16) while the latter did the same in the 500 free (4:58.84).

All told, Cocalico grabbed an additional five medals on Day Two, including closing out the meet with a crucial second-place finish in the 400 free relay (3:31.69), which led the Lady Eagles to an unprecedented second place finish in the team standings behind Hershey.

The Trojans easily captured the team title with 260.5 points, while the Lady Eagles (192) outdistanced Reading (168) for second place honors.

It’s a relief more than anything,” Cocalico Coach Matt Woods said when asked to describe his emotions following a fruitful weekend. “When you’re here, there’s not really much you can do except get them in the water and talk to them and try to make sure they have the right mindset and it’s up to them. They’re the ones swimming, they’re the ones doing everything. So it’s more of a relief more than anything to just be able to sit back, relax and see them do well. That energy just flows from event to event and you can tell by the freestyle relay at the end, they were all jacked up and happy and having fun and that’s all you really want to see.”

“The second-place finish is icing on the cake,” Woods continued. “We were not going into the meet expecting to finish that high. It’s just further proof how how amazing those girls performed this weekend.”

The foursome of Marino, Evans, sophomore Morgan Haines and freshman Sophie Guthridge accounted for all 10 medal wins for the Cocalico. All four were part of Cocalico’s two silver medal winning relays as they took second in the 200 medley (1:47.04) in addition to the 400 free relay.

Individually, in addition to her gold in the 100 back, Marino won a bronze in the 200 free (1:52.70). Evans won her gold in the 500 free and captured a bronze in the 200 IM (2:06.27). Haines took fifth in the 100 free (52.57) and seventh in the 200 free (1:55.30) while Guthridge earned fourth place in the 100 fly (57.59) and eighth in the 100 back (58.87).

All four swimmers punched their tickets in multiple events to compete at the PIAA State Meet to be held at Bucknell University March 11-14, but more on that later.

Saturday, Marino came into the 100 back free and loose despite being seeded fourth in that event. She said she wanted to get out to a fast start and see where it takes her. In the end, it took her all the way to the top of the medal stand as she edged Peyten Lyons of Palmyra, who placed second with a time of 56.28.

“I watched the girl in the heat before me go really fast and I was like, ‘’Oh my goodness, it was definitely a goal,’” she said of winning gold. “I didn’t know how plausible it was, but it was definitely a goal to come in here and shoot for gold. So to see that girl go a 56.2, I knew that I was going to have to move, so I wasn’t focused on anyone else in that pool. I just focused on my under-waters and hoped it worked out.”

It certainly did said Woods, adding that Marino seemed like a different swimmer at Districts this year compared to last.

“I think she had a better mindset coming into it this year than what she did last year,” he said. “She was much more relaxed and positive and enthusiastic and focused on her own time and her own swim. That’s what you want. That’s what she should do at States too. She swam amazing. Coming in, you knew it was a possibility. I said to both Sam and (Evans) when we were sitting up there after the (AA) boys meet, ‘I’ve never handed out a gold medal before. It’d be pretty sweet if I could hand one out.’ So thankfully, they were both able to make that wish come true.”

While Marino went out fast in the 100 back, Evans trailed Warwick’s Emma Schouten after the first 50 before gradually taking over. In the end, Evans overtook Hershey’s Maggie Lee (5:01.88) to post her first-ever gold medal swim at Districts, while Schouten finished third (5:03.96).

“I went into it with the mindset of my goal was to get top three so I didn’t have to worry about qualifying for States,” Evans said following her win. “My goal was to take it out because I know how they’re all good at 200 free too, so I just took it out and saw what happened. As the race went on, my adrenaline just got higher and higher, so I just went for it.”

Evans said she finally started to realize she was going to win late in the final lap.

“It was the last five yards,” she said. “In a 500, I never know when I’m going to get caught. For that last 200, I was basically nervous the whole time because I could feel myself getting tired and I didn’t know how everyone else was feeling. So I just swam until it happened.”

Woods said Evans’ consistency was the key.

“That’s how she is,” he said. “She’s not a sprinter by any means. When she goes to college, she’s going to have even more success because those 400 IM’s, 200 back… those longer events she does much better at. She’s not a sprinter, that’s just not how she is. So a 500 is perfect for her and that’s how it is. She’s not going to be able to take that first 50 out like crazy, but you’d better believe that every 50 after that is going to be fast and she’s going to have a fast pace and just continue to pound that pace the whole time. As you saw, as the race went on, her 50 splits were consistently faster than anybody else and the lead just slowly grew and that’s how you should swim it.”

The 400 free relay team came in as the second seed and that’s exactly where they finished, although they were well behind champion Hershey, which posted a blistering 3:27.99.

Cocalico, which hasn’t had a girls’ relay qualify for States in a long while, got two in with the earlier IM and then the 400 free which finished off a great weekend for the Lady Eagles.

“They all had big drops,” Woods said of his four swimmers. “So I think that that ball of energy from every event, doing well and succeeding just carried over into that 400 free relay and they all swam really well.”

They’ll look to carry that over into States where Marino, Evans and Haines are State Meet veterans while Guthridge will be looking to make her mark in her first appearance.

As of this writing, the State seedings have yet to be released for each event. However, the following are the swimmers and the events in which they will be competing: